I am a graduate student at a public college in Pennsylvania earning a Professional Science Masters degree in Physics. While I earn the degree I will be teaching Algebra based physics I and (hopefully) II at a local community college. I have worked on research regarding surface physics (graphene-hydrogen interaction) and scientific visualization (teaching tool using VR and JavaScript). I graduated from my undergraduate program with a 3.83, and transferred from a community college before that with a 3.6. My current research interests are in the realm of quantum mechanics and astronomy, but I'm afraid my current depth of understanding for either is quite limited.
I had applied to PhD programs last year, and what I had heard back in regards to why I did not get accepted was a lack of interest in specific research areas/researchers, and poor verbal GRE and PGRE scores. My spread was: Verbal - 149(43%), Quant. - 157(66%), Writing - 3.5(42%), PGRE - 600(28%). I applied to Pitt, PSU, Syracuse, UC Riverside, Carnegie-Mellon, and Duke (my first choice was Pitt).
Now, my question is this: I am unsure that I want to finish my PSM program, and will apply again this fall; should I retake both GREs beforehand or should these be okay, given that I will have a boost in my profile due to the graduate courses and teaching experience? Also, do you think I will be shooting too high to apply to schools of similar stature? I would have good recommendations from my academic adviser who graduated with their PhD from Pitt, and one from my research adviser who collaborates with a professor at Syracuse.